


Trees

by StevetheIcecube



Series: LeoNiles Week [4]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Family, Fluff, M/M, Post-Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 17:19:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15845823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: Leo has to study his family tree in preparation for Xander's coronation and Niles is bored.





	Trees

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution for day 4 of Leoniles week, connections!

"I know it's as dull as anything, but I need to learn this," Leo said. The four sheets of paper spread out in front of him along with the large inked family tree were currently the source of his significant aggravation, but he knew he needed to commit a significant portion to memory before tomorrow evening.

"That doesn't mean you have to inflict it on me, milord," Niles said, apparently choosing that moment to distractingly drift his hand down Leo's side. "I won't have to speak to your...third cousin twice removed tomorrow."

"Kamuya, Lord of Aletto?" Leo guessed. Niles glanced back at one of the sheets before nodding. "Never met him in my life. Why did Xander have to invite half the continent to his coronation?"

"Let's do something more interesting, then," Niles said.

"Not now, Niles," he replied. Now really wasn't the time or place. "I know it's boring, but I need to learn this."

"Will they put you on this tree some day?" He asked. "All these connections to far flung people from your family. They get children put on here, right? So why are Xander and Camilla the only ones on the tree?"

Leo sighed. "This tree is about connections and status," he said. "Xander was put on the tree at birth. He was the son of a noblewoman named Katerina, from Cheve. She was also my father's niece's step cousin, a child of my uncle's second marriage."

"Gods," Niles said, and all Leo could do was chuckle. "Sorry, you can continue."

"So she's only on the tree once, because she wasn't entered onto the tree at birth. Her mother's previous husband wasn't connected to us at all. My father's second wife is on here too, as a high born woman, and Camilla's mother isn't here, but Camilla is. That's because, while they weren't married, she was the adopted daughter of a high ranking advisor. But my mother was a fairly common woman, and she never married my father."

"So it's basically a huge snobfest," Niles said. "If you're good enough, then you scrape your way onto the tree, and if you're not, then you don't."

"I'll be added once I have a title," Leo said. "Just as a son of my father. I'll be honest, I don't really care about whether I'm on the tree or not. It doesn't affect my status."

"But you're far more related to the royal family than that Lord of Aletto," Niles said. "So why can't you be on there? Or Princess Elise, for that matter?"

Leo shrugged. He'd explained the best reason he had; that was just how the procedure had fallen when it became clear how complicated tracking his father's heirs would be. "If they put everyone down at birth," he said, "there'd be three or four times the number of people on there than there are living heirs to my father."

"Ah yes, dead siblings," Niles said. "That must look interesting for royal chroniclers. Trying to chart which of the members of the royal family are still alive."

"It makes for interesting reading," he said with a smile. The chronicles of the period were yet to be published or even finalised, because they hadn't dared to finish it under Garon's rule, but Leo had seen what they'd written down so far. "I don't even know what they're going to do about our recent adventures. But the point is that there's no benefit for me, being on this tree."

"And these obscure members of the nobility get the status of their tenuous connections to you and Lord Xander," Niles concluded, and Leo nodded. "So it's just a status thing. Getting into the parties, making deals with other obscure people, and trying to be less obscure."

"Pretty much," he said. "It's silly, in a way. But I can understand why they want it. Sometimes the right connection to the right person can be worth rather a lot. Especially if that connection is to the royal family."

"Do I need to be looking out for people trying to use you through a connection?" Niles asked.

"You can if you like," Leo said. "But I like to think that I understand people a little better than that." It was sweet of Niles, though, to offer. Knowing Niles was there to support him and catch him if anything went wrong made him feel a whole lot better about going to events like these.


End file.
